To ensure the availability of San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center in the
event of a natural disaster or emergency, by building and/or rebuilding and improving
the earthquake safety of the hospital and to pay related costs necessary or convenient
for the foregoing purposes, shall the City and County of San Francisco issue $887,400,000
in general obligation bonds subject to independent oversight and regular audits?

Should the proposed $887.4 million in bonds be authorized and
sold under current assumptions, the approximate costs will be as
follows:

In fiscal year 2009-2010, following issuance of the first series
of bonds, and the year with the lowest tax rate, the estimated
annual costs of debt service would be $3.4 million and result
in a property tax rate of $0.00251 per $100 ($2.51 per
$100,000) of assessed valuation.

In fiscal year 2013-2014, following issuance of the last series
of bonds, and the year with the highest tax rate, the estimated
annual costs of debt service would be $78.5 million and result
in a property tax rate of $0.05032 per $100 ($50.32 per
$100,000) of assessed valuation.

The best estimate of the average tax rate for these bonds
from fiscal year 2009-2010 through 2033-2034 is $0.0337 per
$100 ($33.70 per $100,000) of assessed valuation.

Based on these estimates, the highest estimated annual
property tax cost for the owner of a home with an assessed
value of $400,000 would be approximately $197.77.

Landlords would be allowed to pass through 50% of the
annual property tax cost of the proposed bond to tenants as
permitted in the City Administrative Code. Based on these
estimates, the highest estimated annual cost for a tenant in a
unit with an assessed value of approximately $131,000 would
be $32.96.

These estimates are based on projections only, which are not
binding upon the City. Projections and estimates may vary due to
the timing of bond sales, the amount of bonds sold at each sale,
and actual assessed valuation over the term of repayment of the
bonds. Hence, the actual tax rate and the years in which such
rates are applicable may vary from those estimated above. The
City's current debt management policy is to issue new general
obligation bonds only as old ones are retired, keeping the property
tax impact from general obligation bonds approximately the
same over time.

If you vote "yes," you want the City to
issue $887,400,000 in general obligation bonds, subject to independent
oversight and regular audits, to improve the seismic
safety and ensure continuing operation of San Francisco General
Hospital. Landlords would be allowed to pass 50% of any increase
in property taxes to tenants.

A NO vote on this measure means:

If you vote "no," you do not want the City
to issue these general obligation bonds to improve the seismic
safety and ensure continuing operation of San Francisco General
Hospital.

San Francisco General Hospital, the heart of our city's healthcare
system, needs to be rebuilt to ensure that it is able to remain
open, caring for all those patients who need it, during and after a
major earthquake.

As the only trauma center in San Francisco, General Hospital is
the only acute-care facility in the city whose staff is equipped,
trained and prepared to respond to any life-threatening injury or
catastrophic illness, from car accidents to natural disasters to public
health emergencies.

It is also San Francisco's hospital for all. Dedicated doctors and
nurses deliver state-of-the-art medicine to all needing care. It is at
the center of our city's pioneering initiative to provide universal
health-care to our uninsured residents. It treats 1,500 patients
daily and nearly 100,000 per year  from delivering babies, to
HIV/AIDS care, to brain surgery.

Now is the time to ensure General Hospital remains open and
continues to serve generations to come.

State law requires that it be able to withstand an earthquake
or shut down as early as 2013. Independent studies have
found General Hospital falls far short of that mark and the most care
hospital building on the SFGH grounds.

Proposition A will rebuild General Hospital  and without a net
increase in the city's debt load or property tax burden as the city
will be retiring bonds for other construction projects.

San Francisco does need SFGH seismically safe; not the overpriced,
poorly located "trophy" hospital being presented to voters.

The Civil Grand Jury's 6/26/2008 report documents horrendous
City bond oversight, concluding: "The ultimate response to the
lack of accountability and oversight is for the voters to demand
better governance from City officials. In the meantime, there are
no standard operating procedures to hold departments and commissions
accountable [for bonds] and, by extension, no accountability
by the Board of Supervisors, [the Controller], or the
Mayor's Office."

State law requires both seismic safety and continued operations
following earthquakes. The proposed glass walled hospital, in the
fall zone of both brick buildings, will be damaged and non-operational
if they collapse.

The hospital was designed before the Lewin report projected
San Francisco's 24% shortage of acute hospital beds.

The oval hospital design costs $265 million over the original
rectangular design, including $7 million for art.

A dangerous helipad remains under consideration.

Renters: 50% pass-through erodes rent control.

Homeowners: $59 for every $100,000 in assessed value for 23
years.

Construction costs will exceed City estimates.

Laguna Honda Hospital's delayed, rebuild is $241 million
(60%) over budget and 420 beds (35%) smaller than originally
promised.

Voters deserve accountability. Vote "No" on Proposition A!

George Wooding, West of Twin Peaks Central Council*
Mara Kopp, Good Government Alliance*

For identification purposes only; author is signing as an
individual and not on behalf of an organization.

We support SFGH's healthcare mission; however, SFGH's proposed
rebuild project is poorly planned.

The proposed hospital sits within the fall-zone of two brick
buildings built in 1915 not scheduled for seismic retrofit before
2015; a catastrophic earthquake could crush the new hospital.

After 12 years of planning, DPH rejected a rectangular design,
substituting a circular design, adding $265 million to the cost.

WE CANNOT AFFORD TO WAIT--YES ON A TO SAVE
SAN FRANCISCO GENERAL HOSPITAL

In their argument against Proposition A, the opponents acknowledge
they support the mission of San Francisco General Hospital
and the need to rebuild it.

The doctors and nurses who work at San Francisco General
Hospital know that it is critical that this hospital, the only trauma
center in the city, be rebuilt now. We have spent the last eight
years planning how to comply with the state's seismic laws. We
have considered four different sites and a number of different
configurations. We have chosen a design that will provide the best
possible medical and nursing care for our patients for generations
to come. Finally, this project won't increase the city's debt load or
property tax burden because the city will be retiring debt from
other projects.

Delaying the rebuild will only increase the costs of a new hospital
and risk closure of the existing hospital due to an earthquake is supported by a broad coalition that includes the Democratic and
Republican parties, business and labor, the Mayor and the entire
Board of Supervisors, and hundreds of doctors, nurses, and
healthcare providers.